U.S. Treasury yields fell on Wednesday morning, ahead of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision later in the day.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell by 2 basis points to 1.5243% at around 7:20 a.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond gave up 2 basis points, falling to 1.9335%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%.
The Fed is due to wrap up its two-day policy meeting at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, followed by a press conference with Chairman Jerome Powell. The Fed is widely expected to announce that it will start winding down its $120 billion monthly bond-buying program, in the first step to paring back its emergency economic stimulus measures.
Oliver Blackbourn, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday that the Fed had “really gone out of its way this year to lay the groundwork for this announcement.”
Blackbourn added that it would be important to keep an eye on what is said in the subsequent commentary from the meeting. He explained that when the Fed had previously announced more hawkish policy, it had tended to counterbalance this with more dovish commentary.
“It’ll be interesting to see how much Chair Powell feels that he has to push that … given that the way that markets are starting to price interest rates,” Blackbourn said.
Prior to that, ADP’s October employment change report is due out at 8:15 a.m. ET.
Factory orders data for September is then set to be released at 10 a.m. ET.
An auction is scheduled to be held on Wednesday for $40 billion of 119-day bills.
